FAQs

Do I need tickets?

Not usually, just turn up on the night. We'll be asking for a £3 from everyone to help pay for our equipment, hire costs and speakers expenses. We don't take any money for ourselves. Some special event WILL be ticketed and the link will be included in the event details. When in doubt, just turn up!

You all sound very argumentative to me! I'm not sure if I want to come along.

We can have very strong opinions, but only around the topic of the night. Questions can be demanding because people are passionate about the subject but we're not aggressive or combative. Skepticism is about argument, evidence and rational debate. And not everyone agrees with each other. You can always just have a sit down and listen to the speakers and chat to them in person after the Q&As if you had a pressing question you needed answering. They usually tend to stick around a while. We can debate and still be civil to each other. Most of the time.

If you're a first timer, come and say hello to the organisers, We can introduce you to some of our regulars and make you feel at home. We work hard to make sure everyone feels comfortable and welcomed.

Why do you meet in a pub?

Mainly for practical reasons. We prefer pub meetings to lecture theatres as they're much more relaxed and inviting. It's easy for us to find a cheap or free function room in a pub rather than say, a coffee shop or café (which don't tend to have a back room for meetings and wont give you the whole shop), but there have been Skeptics in the Coffee House, Coffee Shops and Cafés in the US for many years, along with a "Skeptics in the Curry House". Hiring other venues has proven to be prohibitively expensive and we'd rather keep our costs low so everyone can afford to come.

If we're not to your taste, we recommend the Centre for Inquiry lectures at Conway Hall in Holborn. You can find more about their events here:

We've also planned a few Skeptics in the Park events in the past; the first one was in summer 2000 with a UFO building competition. We hope to put on more family-friendly events on in the future - British weather permitting.

Can you provide a projector/PA system?

Yes, we can provide these for speakers.

What have you got against disabled people?

Nothing. Remember SitPs are often run by just one person and even when there's more than one organiser, we're all doing this in our spare time. We've searched long and hard for venues, and not all of them will tick all the boxes for full disabled access. If you know of a venue that would be more suitable for talks and would be more inclusive, please drop us a line and we'll take a look.